Design review: Microhousing on Boylston, apartment tower on First Hill

Wednesday night’s East Design Review Board session includes the big and the small. On First Hill, the board will ponder the early massing plans for a 28-story apartment tower set to replace one of the apparently plentiful surface parking lots around Saint James. Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, a development firm known for its microhousing projects will present its plans for a Boylston Ave E development.

Developers Johnson & Carr and architects at SHW bring forward a plan for a seven-story building with 58 small efficiency dwelling units to replace a possibly historic but already lined up for demolition early 1900s Boylston Ave E house that has been used as an office building in modern times. The Tucker House stands at 420 Boylston Ave E.

Public comment letters so far include concern from neighbors and an adjacent condo building about the lack of parking in the project and a protest from Historic Seattle about the project’s lack of a full environmental — and historic — review.

Wednesday night, the board will concern itself with massing and the proposed design’s interaction with its surrounding neighborhood near Republican and Boylston.

“The project seeks zoning incentives based on Built Green Certification and inclusion of Affordable Housing,” developers note. And, yes, all existing structures are planned to be demolished.

815 9th Ave They do things bigger on First Hill. The 9th Ave component of Wednesday night’s review session concerns itself with a new housing tower to add to First Hill’s race for the sky. The project would replace a Saint James Cathedral parking lot.

Real estate concern 815 Investments is the developer with a design from MG2:

Located in Seattle’s First Hill Neighborhood, the proposed 29-story residential high-rise is situated mid-block on 9th Avenue, between Columbia and Marion. The project has two existing residential buildings on either side along 9th Avenue and a new 30-story residential development across the alley. The building measures 300-feet in height and approximately 151,000 sf of gross floor area. It will provide about 270 residential units. The residential entry lobby is on 9th Avenue, and the residents will have access to private amenitiy space, roof deck and approximately 100 structured parking spaces located below grade, and accessed from the alley.

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Bob I wrote a few months back a piece about the Galbraith House demolition. I wrote the nomination for it in 2004 and it WAS an official landmark. Nonetheless it is gone now. A beautiful building for sure. I am one of many people who have left the hill due to the wanton destruction of the neighborhood I loved and lived in for 30 years. Perhaps if the 10,000 Airbnb units were returned to the long term rental pool there would be less of a housing “crisis?”

Timmy, it is not important to me personally because I’m fortunate to have a driveway for my car, but it is important to alot of people. The Tucker House is in an area where parking is already extremely tight. Some of the residents of the proposed apodment will have cars and park on the street (or at least try to), making life more difficult for everyone else who live nearby.

Rapacious developers are delighted with the “no parking option,” because it greatly increases their profits.

As someone who’s lived in this area for a shorter time than many, I can safely say that parking is essential to anyone who travels outside a 1.5 mile-radius of the neighborhood. When I moved here and did not have a spot, I’d spend 25-35 minutes a night looking for a spot around Summit, only to find most empty spots covered in the shattered glass from someone’s previous carjacking. Parking in this neighborhood is hell, and anyone suggesting a complex with nearly 60 units isn’t going to contribute to that is a sociopath.

It’s not that simple, Maria. The main reason our traffic is so much worse is that so many people are moving to our area…..some of them have cars, and need a place to park. Not everyone can afford a private, monthly parking space…so they must try to find a place to park on the street.

Thank you for emphasizing what I have been saying for some time. The City’s policy of not requiring parking is just making life more difficult/stressful for those who, for various reasons, own a car. But the “urbanists” here and elsewhere don’t seem to give a damn.

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